No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 887 - Surprise Major Winners Deep Dive

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

On this NLU Deep Dive pod, Soly, DJ and Neil each pick a surprise major winning performance from golf history with Soly also dropping a special extra selection to close us out. If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining The Nest: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at nolayingup.com/join Support Our Partners: Rhoback fanduel.com/nlu  One Bars Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Better than most. Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here, going to be joined shortly by DJ Pi and Mr. Neil Schuster. Another deep dive episode, a little evergreen content for you here on the back half of a very

busy week. But we went and did a deep dive on surprise major winners. Not flukey, just some sort of surprise, right? We each went through and got one. I got a little bonus one for you at the end. I got a little carried away in my research on all this, but could be any story you wanted to tell, any kind of a deep dive you wanted to do. So some interesting ones coming up here shortly.

Probably something we're gonna revisit again in the future because this was a lot of fun. This episode is of course brought to you by our friends at Roback. There's a reason why we talk about these guys so much. I wear them every single day. I got to admit the Q-Zips have been collecting a little bit of dust in my closet. Went through those the other day and I was like, why don't I wear these?

I got the AC pump in here in Florida. I'm inside all day anyways. It's just very, very comfortable clothing and they make so many varieties of great materials. They make great polos. They make great hoodies. They make good Q-zips, the crew necks are fantastic, the bathing suits are great, the shorts, the gym shorts and the golf shorts are fantastic. They make great joggers. I'm very excited for jogger weather coming here shortly in the fall. I just love going to the website and looking at their stuff. It's just a really, really

great company. They've been a great supporter of our content and so many satisfied customers end up returning to buy more Roeback. So if you haven't already, time to load up on some Roeback. 20% off your first order through the end of this week. That's R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. 20% off bottoms, Q-zips, hoodies, and more. With code N-O-U, summer isn't the same without Roeback.

Without any further delay, here's the pot. All right, fellows, welcome in. The run of show is gonna be, I'm gonna go first. The pie man is going to go second. Neil is going to go third. And then I have a little bonus one on the back end of this, but I want to, I want to, I'm going to throw this to you first, Neil, what is, what was your process in finding a

surprise major winner? Sally's a teacher's pet. It did extra work. Yeah. I actually did two. No, the plan was for all of us to do two. And you guys last minute I raised your hand. I can only do one. No, I'm just, I got deep in the lab on one and I didn't want to stop.

There's too much stuff. A lot of stuff. Yeah. A guy that I didn't know much about other than a few, you know, a few pictures, but surprise. Yeah. You can take surprise a few different directions. Most people might think like a Ben Curtis, like yo, who the fuck is this guy?

But I also think surprise might mean like, waiting before you're expected to, or coming out of nowhere in the final round. So I don't want to steal anybody's theme here. But Deidre, what were you thinking as far as surprise? Yeah, same, same boat. I mean, I went to my my official researcher, Michael Wolf, our guy Wolfie, and just said, Hey, where would you take this? What's what springs to mind for you? He sent me 60 to 70 names. And you know, so I think we've got a couple of years worth of kind of hooks and content that we can go from here.

But I kind of just started with what I think is the granddaddy, man, the the original Stuart sink, the original, the guy that became the guy famous for beating the guy. And we will we will get there when we get there. I also went for a guy that was famous for beating the guy. And it's not, it's heavily documented. It's been profiled. It's within our lives. We will all remember watching it,

but it was about the other guy losing when he did. And it wasn't necessarily about this guy winning. I mean, the shock of this guy beating, I'll say it right now. My first one up is Y.E. Yang beating Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship. We did, KV and I did profile this briefly back when we bunched four major years all in one episode, which we learned very quickly was a bad way of doing it, rushing through the majors.

But of course, we're going to the 2009 PGA championship, which is held at? Who's got it? Hazeltine. That is correct. We are going to Hazeltine site. As we're recording this, the US amateur is going on just now. Tiger Woods had won the United States Open championship the year prior to that. He of course had surgery on his knee immediately after that, missed the rest of the major championships, finished T6 at the Masters that year, finished T6 at the US Open. He missed the cut at the Open Championship 2009, which I did not remember that happening or why that happened or how that happened. But anyways, 2009, for those that don't remember, Tiger after the surgery was playing very, very good golf,

extremely good golf very quickly. He won the Arnold Palmer that year. He won the Memorial tournament. He won the AT&T national in July and he comes into the PGA championship having won the Buick Open and the Bridgestone in his prior two starts. So not sneaking up on anybody. Number one player in the world

even after the injury is far and away. And he opens the tournament with a opening round 67, makes five birdies, no bogeys. It's looking like the cat from the absolute jump. A gentleman by the name of Y.E. Yang shoots a 73. He is six shots back of the number one player in the world, ranked as the 110th ranked player in the world. He was ranked 460th when he won earlier this year

at the Honda Classic after getting his card through Q school in the year before that. We'll get to some of that, but. Real quick on that, there's so many of these guys that become these surprise major champions and just like a real like, who's this clown that won earlier that year on the PGA Tour? And Y Yang's one of those guys,

Danny Willett's one of those guys. I remember Len Matisse being one of those guys. And so it is always funny to hear like, yeah, I mean, this guy came out of nowhere. It's like, well, he's, I mean, he's ranked 110th out of 30 million golfers. Like he's still, you know, he's still pretty good. But like why I've chosen this is his path to getting there. Do you guys know the YE Yang story of like, I mean, 37 years old when it, when this happens, right? He's,

he's not young. He's not an up and coming player. His path to even to get to that point is, is quite remarkable, which again, we'll get to, but I mean, my, my lasting memory is just like fantastic flow. Like he's always had great flow coming out the top of the visor. Kind of got that Lego hair. Yeah. You could argue that he, it looks like he's wearing the visor wig combo, but you know, it's, it's kind of, it's good stuff. So credit where credit is due. He's got fantastic flow. Round two cat comes out, shoot 70 opens up a four shot lead through 36 holes. And again, I cannot stress enough. We know what happens, but I cannot stress enough going back to a 36 hole margin.

Guy has 14 for 14 closing 54 hole leads in major championships. How much of a done deal this was. I mean, this was, this was signed, sealed, delivered every single one of these majors from our childhood growing up. This isn't necessarily our childhood. This was done and over and he won these things. So all it would be, he'd be sending out Vince Carter. Yes. You know, just like call it now. We don't even have to come back and play the weekend. Do you remember what you guys were doing during this tournament by the way? Cause I vividly remember being, uh, I was on a trip with my friends in of all places, Daytona

beach and we were wildly hung over beer bottles all over a hotel room. I'm just watching tiger like gas this thing away and like, Oh, just a very miserable visceral feeling. I remember. So this would have been August of 2009? Yeah, it would have been a football camp or approaching it. I don't think I remember watching this one. Hotel room? Well, I remember watching Sunday. I do remember how it ended.

So I did see it, but I don't know where I was. Hotel room, East Lansing, Michigan, just in shock. I was there for a client visit the next day and I just, I could not believe it was all. I mean, Tiger was minus 500 at the 36 hole mark of this tournament. Like he was plus 175 going into the week, into the tournament, shot the opening round 67 was minus 140,

then minus 500, and then it's gonna be minus 455 going into the final round against Wai Yee Yang. So on this day to Yang bogeys four of his first five holes on Friday after shooting 73 So again the chances of this guy hunting down the greatest golfer ever. I don't know that I don't think we have odds for that He came back and made an eagle and four birdies on that Friday to shoot 70 ends up t9 Six shots back of the legend going

into the weekend. Round three Tiger comes out and shoots a 71 but the lead is cut from four to two Padraig and Y.E. Yang are now nipping on his heels. Tiger played extremely conservatively on this day but Yang was just going nuts shot the low round of the day 67 and Padraig Harrington bogeys the 18th hole to get Y.E. Yang into the final group. Yang would say on Saturday night, he said, it's a privilege to be listed on top of with those names, great names and great players that I admire and respect. And believe it or not, I did not know this until I looked this up. Yang and Tiger had gone head to head before. Yang held him off by two at the 2006 HSBC championship. They were not playing together

on that day, but he stared Tiger Woods down and beat him by two. And then when asked that Saturday night, when he found out he'd be paired with Tiger, he said, my heart nearly exploded from being so nervous. But he also said, and this is a really interesting quote. He said, I think that the great names, when they tee off with Tiger,

their competitive juices flow out and they go head to head and try to win. I don't consider myself as a great player. So my goal today was just to shoot even par. He would say that later about so relatable. Yeah, like that realistic setting those expectations low so that you're thrilled with the outcome. And so there's many, you know, Yang obviously does not speak a lot of English, but he does have a few words that he says throughout the course this round, which are just they're legendary. It's amazing. I love,

I love Y.E. Yang after reading about this and hearing about this. And, you know, I, AJ Montesinos is Yang's caddy. And he's kind of after all this happens, he's kind of responsible for, you know, talking to the media afterwards. He's gotten an interpreter. Yang has an interpreter afterwards, but he does a lot of interviews kind of telling stories about the day. And he ends up being kind of the lead storyteller of all this. And he's got so many great quotes that I had to do it to you guys. I had to go find him myself and without any further delay,

here's AJ Montesinos. Wow, wow. Yang's agent came over to me on the punting green and said, Yang is nervous. And so I went over to Yang, put my arm punting green and said, Yang is nervous. And so I went over to Yang, put my arm around him and I said, Hey, it's just me and you. You know, this is, you know, this is what we're made for. I was looking forward to it. I could, I couldn't wait.

I just let Yang know, Hey, it's just me and you. And you know, let's just go do our thing. And you know, Yang is mentally tough. He, I mean, he, he's a great player and he didn't need, he didn't need much, but Tiger and Stevie didn't say one word to us for five holes. Playing golf with Tiger in a major is like playing golf on the inside of a radio with every station going at the same time is how I described it. And so I finally walking down the fairway on five with Tiger and I looked at him and I go, I was like, man, you do this kind of shit every day?

And he'd go up every week and he's like, yeah, you see why I don't play much? I was like, man, I don't blame you. We finished the fifth hole. He stood over that second shot Tiger did for quite a while. I don't know why, as they were trying to get the win right. And then on six, we tee off, and the rules official comes right over to Yang.

And every time I say this, KH Lee, he cracks up. He loves it. He always says it to me on the punting room when I see him, but the rules official comes right over to Yang and goes, you guys are behind. And Yang looks at him and goes, not me, him. And so, he pointed right at Tiger, so that was hilarious. So that kind of loosened it up a little bit, but I mean, it was an's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a,

it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, I'm like, no, no, he's the one that Tiger's the one that was playing slow. But I mean, Yang comes out again, playing. I don't know if I mentioned it,

he's playing with Tiger fucking woods, right? And he comes out and he birdies the third hole, Tiger bogeys the fourth and they're tied. Uh, Yang kind of holds serve for a little while there and Tiger birdies 11 to take a one shot lead, but he gives it right back. And I got to throw it back to AJ to bring us into this early part of this pack nine. The pivotal moment was 13 because 13 is that long part three. And it was like two 30 into the wind and Yang hits first and he, we pulled the five wood left in

the bunker and tiger hit a three iron. To this day, I've never seen a ball fly like that. I mean, when he hit that shot, my mouth dropped and it would just never left the flag, right on top of the flag. And then like, he was probably, I don't know, eight or 12 feet. And Yang hit his approach out of the bunker outside of Tiger's birdie putt.

And Yang made that and Tiger missed his birdie putt. So me, I think that's the momentum changer. But then when he tipped in for Eagle, that was just icing on top of the cake. And then when he fatted that five wood, Yang is walking in front of me. He turns around, he looks at me, he goes, Tiger nervous. I was like, you're not going to ride it. That's my favorite one ever. That's tiger chugged a five one on 15 you say it and did Yang pull it turns him and says tiger nerves. Apologies to AJ.

His voice got a little distorted in the recording of that, that, uh, but, and I should have stopped it, stopped it at some point. Apologies for that. But I just, I want to go back to the first clip you played from when he was like, ask tiger, like do this every week. You go, yes. And he was like, ask tiger, like do this every week. You go, yes. I didn't know why I'm playing. It's too small.

It's a circus out here. Really, really chaotic. And he breathes past this, but I should have remembered this, but Yang chips in for eagle on the driveable par 414 and does like a big tiger fist pump. And it all of a sudden just becomes this thing. It's like, oh my god, this is actually happening. They both bogey 17, but Yang still has a one shot lead and they get to 18 and Yang pulls his shot

into the left intermediate cut. And he's got two 10 into the 18th and the wind is whipping off the left and the pin is all the way in the back left. And he is, you know, kind of mulling over it. How many, how many headcovers do you think are in why Yang's bag? So many hybrids, five. He has five head covers in the 110th ranked player in the world. He's so good.

Holes three hybrid and he makes the purest fucking strike you'll ever see. I mean, just absolutely flushes it. Faraday blows the call. He says that he's over hooked it, but the wind is so strong off the left that it holds it up and he flags it. It is such a freaking good shot. The crowd almost like groans more than it does cheer. Like it's just like, Oh, like this

is Oh my god, Tiger is gonna go down. Tiger hit a good shot at the back left pin but actually settled in the deep rough like a foot off the green we would have had some takes about the Hazel team setup. I have a feeling back in the day, but like at this point as they're like, Yang's got his birdie putt and Tigers got his chip, like we still don't know that Tiger is not invincible. Right? Again, like think back to the 08 US Open. He was dead. How many times in that one? And you know, again, I'm sitting

there watching this hotel thing like he's going to chip this in like, Bob May, you thought you had it, you don't get to you don't get to beat Tiger, you don, I, again, I'm sitting there watching this hotel and thinking like, he's going to chip this in. Like Bob May, you thought you had it. You, you don't get to, you don't get to beat tiger. You don't get to do this. Does not happen. Tiger chips it and never has a chance to go in. And, uh, why he, he's got it. It got a two putt from like 10 feet. And I, I, I, again, I mentioned this the last time we covered this one, but, uh, somebody tweeted this and I can, I still couldn't find the tweet. This go around. Somebody replied to me and found it, but somebody tweeted. And I remember this distinctly, like we are two minutes away from Jim Nance saying Y E S as soon as a Yang makes the putt Yang hits it.

Balls rolling towards the cup. Jim Nance, why E S and he makes it goes nuts. Tiger misses his putt Yang wins by three. Tiger was 14 of 14 closing major championships going into the final round and Y.E. Yang beats him. Man. Tiger started three up on the day. Two up on the day. Two up on the day. Okay. And so it all it all it changed like kind of the flip way he says is that 13 but 14 when he chips in.

Yeah, so how I mean Yang birdies three but boys five, and then makes pars on six through 13, and they're tied after 13 holes. Tiger started at eight, but he bogeyed four and bogeyed eight. So he went out in two over with no birdies. Tiger birdied 11, bogeyed 12. So that's where they were tied. And then Tiger birdied 14, but Yang made the eagle, and Yang never gave up the lead after that.

So he, but the up and I mean, Tiger's putting for birdie on 13 and Yang's got a long par putt. It might be a two shots. He might be up by two. Yang makes that putt Tiger misses and then goes and chips in. Like it's, it's flipped all of a sudden. So Tiger did not have a great day on the greens. He shot 75 with 33 putts again. Always a pause we say in these don't ever say Tiger made every putt that that mattered. He did not. He is the goat, but he missed a

lot of putts. He missed seven putts inside of 10 feet in the final round alone. And I can't help but if I had to go back, put myself in 2009, and remember like, Oh man, he is human. And then like, November of 2009, three months later, he was super duper regular human. Uh, this was kind of that first, I mean, it's kind of crazy how it snowballed into like, holy shit, this was like this. Yeah. Never really, never really returned to this. Superhuman and super age also super age, very super age, extremely age.

Tiger going to say it was just a bad day at the wrong time. That's the way it goes. And as you just mentioned, his life would unravel just a few months later and his career would never be the same. Never be the same clubhouse attendant who was near the locker room TV told down the stretch told Montesinos you have no idea how many players were down here cheering Yang on guys jumping up and down the couch just to see Tiger finally get beat. That's good stuff.

So again, why I found Yang particularly interesting, again, going back to Tiger Woods on the Mike Douglas show at whatever age, winning a hundred trophies by the time he turned eight years old, why Yang did not pick up a golf club until he was 19 years old. And when he won this tournament, he was also the first Asian to ever win a major championship. I mean, there's a lot of a lot more Asian players out on the PJ Tour, especially now. There's been more Asians that have won major championships, but he is the first Asian to win a major championship. Yang grew up working on his family's vegetable and rice farm on the island of Jeju, which is where they used to have the the CJ Cup.

I've actually been there, it's quite nice. He was, do you remember what his aspirations were as a kid? What was it, weight lifting? Bodybuilder. Yeah, yeah. So that, him lifting the bag over his head after making that final putt was maybe a tribute to that. He had, you know, he wanted to own his own gym one day,

but he had a knee injury that derailed him when he was 18 years old. He tore his ACL, I believe working on a construction job, I saw that in one place, but I could not verify that one. I mean, he's a working class background. And he ends up getting a job picking range balls at a local club in exchange for like a local driving range in exchange for a modest salary, the chance to hit

balls early in the morning and late at night. I can't tell if this is two different places he worked or not, but he could sleep there. He had his own string of lights and the it was no longer than 60 yards. Like you're just hitting into a net like 60 yards away. And that's how he learned to play golf, like through a baseball grip and through like instructional videos, like watching Jack Nicklaus how to play. He was breaking par within three years.

And again, the the unlikeliness of all this, then had to go do his compulsory military service. Like, talk about the ultimate delay to a career. He turned pro against his father's wishes, who said golf is for rich people, made his way over the Korean tour, then the Asian tour and the Japanese tours, nine professional wins, including that PJ tours Honda classic in March. Uh, and again, he was ranked 460th in the world, uh, when he went out and won that.

But going back to Q school, just nine months early, he had got his card a couple of years prior, lost it and was back in Q school. Ends up hiring AJ Montesinos to get back on his bag who helped him through Q school. Second stage, two years prior to that. Yanks out, I need this guy again. They get to the final hole. He's a 20 under par and he is scrambling over this final hole and chips it to like eight or 10 feet on the final

hole and asks Montesinos like is 18 okay? And Montesinos says, no, make it. And Yang poured the putt into the center of the hole or else he would not have even gotten the card and would not have gotten the Honda Classic when and would not have gotten the PJ championship. He would then later pay off the $10,000 that Montesinos own on his Mitsubishi Galant with his Honda winnings after they won that one. He effectively referred to his caddy as Mr. Bean for his resemblance to British comedian Rowan Atkinson. I don't know if I see that, but it's still very funny.

Get other quotes. Yang would later say, if you're not, it's not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting against tiger and he's going to bite you or swing at you with his nine iron. The worst that I could do is just to lose the tiger. So it's not like I really had nothing at stake. God, that's good. I remember Max's pod that you guys just did. That's, you know, he had some similar, similar types of quotes.

Yeah. What's going to happen? I shoot 80. That's all right. I already proved that I'm a good player. Tiger had not lost an outright lead after the third round since he was a 20 year old rookie runner up to Deidre. You're going to get it. Oh, the gripper, the gripper, Deidre, you're going to get it. The gripper. The gripper.

Ed Fiore. The gripper. Again, why this is like just, it's in our canon and we remember this, but Yang did not break par until he was 22 years old. Tiger won the Masters when he was 21. And Yang was- I know, the guys that can, that learn the game late in life,

like, I mean, even, I referenced it, like I played in the Publinks. I played with the guy that picked up the game at 41, and he's a zero handicap. I just, I'm just in awe of the late in life. Golf is not a natural, like, athletic move. And so the ability, and the common theme seems to be people that have just like, they, I don't know,

access to a driving range every day, just grooving a swing like that is, it seems to be a common theme seems to be people that have just like, they, I don't know, access to a driving range every day. Just grooving a swing like that is, it seems to be a common theme. More so than like, you know, access to a course, honestly. It's almost like, no, no, don't even go to the course for like three years. Just bang balls. Bang balls, yeah.

And some of the writing afterward, Alan Shipnuck and Si would call it great. Golf's greatest upset since Francis we met beat Harry Varden and Ted Ray at the 1913 U S open. I did not remember this later that year. Yang. I'm going to take, I'm going to take issue with that when I, when we get to my, I figured you might, you might, when you get to yours, but Yang, of course, would make the president's cup team that year where he would go a two,

two and one at Harding park. Remember who he played up, got paired up against in Sunday singles. Was it tiger again? It's tire fucking woods. Tiger beat him six and five. They also played four ball against each other on Saturday afternoon. Tiger and stricker got yang and Rio Ishikawa four and two. I tried to do the math DJ remind me on president's cup. Does like the, if you're set one in this time period, I know this is before you worked in the tour, but when you're making the lineup for Sunday singles, so

President's Cup, how they do it. One team puts up a guy, the other guy responds. Ryder Cup, they do a blind entry into it, but they would have done that in this in this President's Cup, right? And does the visitor go first to set the lineup? I can't remember. I feel like they altered. I feel like they might have altered it. Because if they did, it means that Tiger was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Somebody asked for the other guy, right? I can't figure out who, but by my count, they were the eighth match out. And so it would have been the US putting up Tiger and why Yang say, I want that guy again, by my count. I could be wrong on that, but somebody asked for this rematch. I gotta remember how they do it. They might snake it. It might be like, you brought it. Right. So international first, then us number one, us number two, international

two, international three, three. And if that is the case, then it would have been the internationals taking why if they are, if the visitors go first, that was, I was, I was deep in researching that as we were right before we get ready to go off here. Why he's like, y'all, y'all are scared. I'll take them again. He did not go well. Was that, was that the, no, I guess if it was six and five, that wasn't the vicious club twirl.

That was the same week. That was the same week, right. But that wouldn't be in this singles match. Correct. That was like Saturday. That was in an alt shot one. I think With with strict if I remember right Yang would Go on to win the Volvo China open the next year, but he would never win another PJ tour event

He did also a lot of people don't remember this finished t3 at the 2011 US Open far behind Roy McElroy In that one, but another top five 11 US Open, far behind Roy McElroy in that one, but another top five in a major championship, but finished T8 at the following year's Masters as well, with those are the only top 10s he would ever record in major championships. I would like to go back and just highlight that his dream has become a power lifter, a bodybuilder. And I think because of that, we voted him as our starting right or left guard on the NLU All paint scheme team. Just a guy that could, you know, he can pull, he's got some decent movement,

low to the ground. I mean, the guy's a power plant. Deidre, what's the hammer story? Oh, that was KJ Choi, which actually reminds me of my favorite story, which is, I forget who told me this. One of my friends, when I was working at the tour, Y. Yang was signing autographs, you know, along the rail and all these fans are coming up to him and they're all like, oh, KJ, KJ, let me get your autograph, KJ. Y.E. walks by my buddy, I forget who it was, it was a rules official or a score or something. He's like, man, he's like, always KJ, never Y.E. But yeah, the hammer drills, the KJ Choi hammer drills, I think is the bunker

thing where you just over the head kind of slam your lob wedge into the sand to really eliminate the left miss, I guess is the thought. Apologies to why you always KJ. I think he goes by Yang. I learned as well. Yeah, it's the Asian names can be presented why he Yang to us in English, but they would go by, he would go by Yang. I think, I don't know, I was getting confused there, but credit to some sources, Gary Van Sickle in Sports Illustrated, Alan Schipnik in Sports Illustrated, and Ian O'Connor from ESPN where I got a lot of the information and look back on

this. So that is Y.E. Yang. I tip my cap to you, sir. You are a legend and I just cannot get over the unlikelihood of that entire, his entire journey to being there on that day, the comeback and everything. I would also shout out, he's had an awesome champions tour career. I think he's seventh this year on the champions tour

on the money list, but he's been, he's been very successful, long career for Y.E. Yeah. Tiger nervous will live in my head for as long. I will remember that when I'm in my nineties why Tiger nervous will live in my head for as I will remember that when I'm in my 90s Tiger nervous line up your first win when you bet the PGA Tour on Fandual America's number one sportsbook you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Check out live PGA

Tour bets like longest drive round leaders matchups birdie or better and more. They also got all kinds of fun plays in there on this week I'm on Xander Shafle and Rory McIlroy or I should say Xander Shafle or Rory McIlroy to go bogey free and round lump sweat and that is the time of recording this because Rory is currently bogey free. Xander blew that one for me but so much fun stuff every single week if you'd like to do a little gaming on golf plus trek every shot live in the app. Watch select par three holes when you place your bets just visit Fandl.com slash nlu get $200 in bonus bets Fandl official betting operator the PGA tour must be 21 and older 18 older in DC and President select states gambling problem call 1-800 gambler visit rg-help.com first online real money wager only $5 first deposit required bonus issued as nominal trouble bonus bets which

expire seven days after receipt restrictions apply see terms at sportsbook.fandle.com. Back to the pod. DJ Pye, you got something cooked up for us. Who is your surprise major winner? DJ Pye Thank you, Sal. It's very funny listening to you kind of run down your whole thing and you're going to hear a lot of echoes. What is the saying? Neil, history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. It rhymes. A lot of rhymes going on with Wai Yang. We've got some military service. We've got some delayed success. We've even got a little Quad Cities throw in there with the gripper. Let's just start there.

We're starting in 1921 in Bettendorf, Iowa, where a future major champion is born and he gets his first taste of golf when the Western Open comes to Davenport nearby. We were talking about Jack Fleck, the winner of the 1955 US Open. He famously took down Ben Hogan and kind of spent the rest of his career paying for it. There's a great column I'm going to reference a couple of times through here by the great sports writer, Jim Murray, who's basically saying, you know, to understand what happened to Jack Flack, you have to understand just how into Hogan people were. And the quote that sticks out to me is, Arnold Palmer had an army, Ben Hogan had a whole

religion. You didn't just admire Ben Hogan, you believed in him. And just setting the table, we're going to eventually get to 1955. US Open at Olympic Club, but Ben Hogan, of course, in 1949 is coming off of the car crash that nearly killed him, completely pulverized the lower part of his body. He won two US Opens after that. He's going for another one at Olympic Club, which would have made him the first five time US Open champion. So all that's kind of like just keep that on the shelf. That's all running in the background here. Back to Bettendorf, Iowa, where our guy Jack Flock is getting his first taste of golf.

At the Western Open, he sneaks into this golf tournament. He had never seen golf before, gets a little taste of it before getting kicked out by the security guards and the quote that I love Is that I saw enough to really like what I saw and after that he gets a job as a caddy It's 1939 and he tells his dad that he wants to become a professional golfer It's all I'm gonna do this little backwards of what you did it We're gonna start with some of the biographical stuff and then we'll get into the tournament 1939 of course, you got to remember this is we're kind of just on the back end of the biographical stuff and then we'll get into the tournament. 1939, of course, you got to remember this is we're kind of just on the back end of the depression, especially in kind of the Quad Cities, not really the biggest busting metropolis in the world. His dad was a truck farmer. I don't know

what that means. I don't think he farmed trucks. I think he just probably used his truck for farming. I don't know. But he's just this farmer in the Quad Cities who's scraping by with five kids. Here's his son, say he wants to become a professional golfer. Obviously, he thinks that's very stupid. Tells him that he should go. Did he not know about the contest business tour top 10 at that point? No vision from Jack Fleck's dad. But Fleck was very determined to make this goal a reality. And one of the first things he did after he graduated high school was, and I want you to pay attention to the words I'm saying here, hitchhike to San Antonio. This graduating high school, he hears that there's a professional event going on in San Antonio and he decides to hitchhike to it. What are you doing this weekend? I don't know. I'm thinking about

maybe hitchhiking to San Antonio to check out this golf tournament. He's just, he's just working the rim of the dust bowl here. Truly. Right. Just riding the line from the quad cities to San Antonio to check out this golf tournament. He's just, he's just working the rim of the dust bowl here. Truly. Right. Just riding the line from the quad cities to San Antonio. That's right. So while he's there, he makes it to San Antonio. If he watches this golf tournament while he's there, he meets a guy named Dutch Harrison, uh, who apparently was kind of a big dick player at the time. Eventually went on to top five in all the majors.

Uh, except for the open. None of these guys ever played the open. When you get to San Antonio, you got to find this guy Dutch. Go look up Dutch. He's your guy. He'll help you out. And help him out. He did. Harrison ended up, he knew somebody in the Quad Cities and ended up helping Fleck get a job as a caddy and eventually an assistant pro at Des Moines Country Club, where he made five dollars a week. So he does that for a while. And now it's 1942. You guys can probably see what's going to happen next. He joins the U.S. Navy. And flash forward a couple of years, he is finds himself at Utah Beach in Normandy. You know, part of the D-Day invasion. Neil, I thought, it's in the eye of the beholder. If it's a good thing or a bad thing. Yeah. And so, uh, so Jack Fletch does that for a while after he gets out of the

service. Now he's still undaunted. He's still going to be a professional golfer, but he's got to pretty much start all over. He actually, he's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer. He's got to be a professional golfer, but he's got to pretty much start all over. He estimates that in his first round after getting out

of the service, he shot 93, but two weeks after that, he traveled down to, I think Florida, Georgia, Alabama, to just kind of follow the sun and try to play as many mini tour events. So he's like, yeah, I know I shot 93, but I'm going to still try to, I'm a pro now. I got this. Don't worry about that. Tough start, but we're fine. We're fine. Let a few get away out there. Yeah. Try me guys. We'll just wait. So listen, obviously not making a bunch of dough with

this strategy. He's kind of bouncing around trying to play some events and in between between all of these events during the summer, he's working in the pro shop at the Credit Island Muni in Davenport answering phones, fixing clubs, picking rain. I mean, god, 50 years later, he could have run into the Strap Boys. There's a lot of strapped echoes throughout this. It's wild. So this is where we find our guy, Jack in 1949, standing behind the counter when a woman named Lynn burns Dale comes in to have a club repaired. They start chatting and boom, six weeks later, they are married.

Things moved a lot faster back in the day, man. Post-war, let's not delay anything. Let's just fucking get to it. It must've fucking nailed that club repair. Exactly. Yeah. I think, you know, we'll get to some more quotes from, from Lynn later, but I think she was, she was quite smitten by our guy, Jack, who everybody kept every piece I read to a piece. Everybody keeps calling him Lincoln esque, which is just a very funny descriptor. It's just tall, skinny Midwestern guy, angular features. Everybody just keeps calling him Lincoln-esque, which is kind of funny.

Okay. So flash forward one more year. The couple has a young son. I think this is important. They're discussing names and Jack really, really, really wanted to name the son Snead Hogan Fleck. I thought you were going to say Bella. I thought you were going to say Bella.

I thought you were going to hit me with Bella. Is this where the Fleck tones were created? No. He really wants to name the kids Snead Hogan Fleck. Loves, loves, loves Hogan. When he's on the way up, he was desperate to play Hogan clubs. He saw some in a golf shop. Hogan famously would not sell his clubs to other competitors. He didn't want to be facing off against somebody who also played his club.

So I think he was like such a no name that Hogan agreed to give him the clubs. Flash forward to the 1955 US Open. The only two players in the field that are playing Ben Hogan clubs are Jack Flack and Ben Hogan. Pretty fucking cool. Obviously, the name Snead Hogan is very stupid and Lynn feels the same way about this. Just a very, just not a serious name.

But she did compromise and she allowed him to name the kid after another golfer. Any guesses what golfer they would have named him after? Byron? Great guess. But Walter Hagen. Also a good guess. They named him Craig Wood fleck.

Craig, an absolute menace, won the 1941 Masters and the US Open. So let's check in on the golf career here. Now he's got a wife and a young son. He, as I mentioned, child of the depression, which I think was probably good. A lot of significant belt tightening probably going on during this stretch.

So to make enough money, Jack and Lynn both worked at this Muni they both started showing up at like 530 every day and working behind the counter and taking care, you know, when one was taking care of the kid the other one was working and vice versa. As anyone who has ever grown up at a Midwestern golf course will relate to, where do they build these golf courses? They build them in floodplains and we had had back to back years of all time floods by the Mississippi River in 1951 and 1952, which caused it to the golf course to close for significant chunks of time. So not, now not only is our guy not making any money on the golf course,

he's also not making any money at his job. And so probably not practicing much. Yeah. So I think he's, he's trying to figure out what to do. He's traveling around and when he's playing tournaments, he's always thinking about is like, God, I need to be making money for my family. And when he's, you know, back working, he's like, God, I need to be able to really kind of commit to this thing. And so in 1953, they get thrown a lifeline. Jack gets an offer to become a head pro at a private club in Moline right across the river from his hometown. It's a year round job, great salary. Probably the answer to a lot of their stressors turns it down.

Fuck that. No, I'm becoming a pro golfer. I'm not doing that. And he credits his wife, Lynn, who just keeps, keeps him going. She insists he doesn't, he doesn't give up, keep the golf career going. So he gets back to it, gets back to the grind. 1953, guess how much money he makes on the golf course? $3,678. $13.75. Things are not going great. 1954, he makes $113 on the golf course. But that winter things finally start to click a little bit. He commits to playing a full calendar of these winter events kind

of in between the PGA Tour season. He's he's signing up for whatever he can find. The game starts to click a little bit. He ends up winning $2,700 in just a few months. So, you know, inflation calculator, it's like 30 grand. So he's got a little bit more, you know, he's still trying to fund a pro career, but at least he's able to kind of keep himself above water. And he enters the spring of 1955 with a ton of confidence. So even though, you know, he hasn't been playing great, he's not really a world beater. At this point, he qualified for two U S opens in the past. He qualified in 1950 and he qualified in 1953. Both of those happen to be won by the same guy.

I'm guessing you can see where this is going. So again, in 1955, he gets through U S open qualifying in Chicago and boom, he has a spot in the field at the U S open at Olympic club. So this is before the days of, net jets or really even like commercial air travel being all that convenient or cheaper, accessible. So he drives out there solo from Iowa to California. It's a 49 hour drive, not feeling super refreshed when he arrives, because according to reports, he shot 87 in

the practice round. I'm curious. This is right. Also 49 hours like this is, I'm guessing the interstate really isn't right. You know, we're probably hitting route 66. We probably got to go south route 66 and then back north in California. Totally. I didn't think about this, but after he ended up winning the US Open, he, he got invited to the White House to have lunch with Dwight Eisenhower. Maybe that was an agenda item. Sure. We gotta do something. What are we doing here, man? We can't be doing this anymore. How am I supposed to get to DC from here? Yeah, exactly. So as always, he arrives, money is on the mind. One newspaper said that he barely had enough cash

To pay his caddy fees or his locker fees. He had to pay for a locker at this place And so after paying for the trip out there and for all the weekly expenses They said on the day that the final putt went in he won the US Open. He had three dollars left in his pocket Crazy stuff man crazy stuff. Let's get into the actual tournament. How was he gonna get back? Don't know. I thought that same exact thing. I don't know if it was a true Trevino, like I don't know, man, I guess I better just not lose. But yeah, who knows?

He went solo, he didn't bring the fam. Totally solo. His wife actually was working at the golf shop. So we'll get there, but the morning, yeah, the morning he won the US Open, she had to get to the golf shop at like we'll get there. But the morning, yeah, the morning he won the U.S. Open, she was, she had to get to the golf shop at like 530 to open it up. So round one starts brutally, brutally difficult U.S. Open setup here at the Olympic club. One guy breaks par, Tommy Bolt, who shoots 67, Jack Flex shoots 76. So he's, he's nine

back of the leader. Can't imagine he's making a lot of waves. Uh, you know, he's, he's been playing decent golf. I think people kind of other players know who he is, but certainly fans don't. This is what Herbert Warren wind wrote about the first round quote, there had been the annual controversy as to whether or not the USDA and the host club had made the course unfairly tough in their efforts to provide a formidable test for the present brigade of precision golfers. Along the narrow fairways that lurked was rough that was really rough, really rough. To play more than a six iron from

the deeper strips was quite impossible. So again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. He writes that the grass just off the fairway was five inches high and deeper into the rough. It was allowed to grow up to a foot tall. So just, you know, imagine these pampered fucks trying to hack out of foot high rough, try to win a major championship. It's just, Randy, if you're listening, I know this has got to, got to just warm the heart. It should be hard. Exactly.

Right. Let me know if this is hard enough for you. In the opening round, literally half the field shot 80 or higher. So in order to make the cut, you had to shoot 155. That doesn't happen a lot. And it's just worth, you know, worth a little bit of a celebration. That's 15 over 155, part 70. I believe so. Yes, I can look that up. This was kind of back in the day where round one was on a Thursday, round two was on a Friday and then a 36 hole final was on Saturday. So round two comes around, Jack Flex shoots 69, credible bounce back. No one really cares.

He's back at the leaders, but nobody really cares because the final round leaderboard is dialed. Storylines abound. We have Tommy Bolt is tied for the lead. Anybody know who he's tied with the lead with? Tied for the lead with. It is not Ben Hogan. Totally forgot about this. Arnold Palmer?

Ken Venturi? Very close. He is tied with an amateur named Harvey Ward. Harvey Ward, of course, famously, you famously, one of the subjects of that book, The Match. He was the US amateur champion at the time. He had moved to San Francisco to begin working with Eddie Lowry as his main sponsor. He lived across the street from Olympic Club. We have Tommy Bolt tied for the lead. We have this amateur, the US amateur champion, Harvey Ward, tied for the lead. Ben Hogan is one back trying to become the first five time winner of the U S open. Julius Burrows is one back. Sam Snead shot a 69 in day two. He's four back and Jack flex just kind of

hanging out there. I think three back, very Danny, Danny will it vibes. Just what an unbelievable leaderboard. I can't believe, you know, one of these superstars is about to win. Oh, wait, maybe not a type of day. So getting into the 36 hole final, which again, I don't think we can say this enough that we're talking about Ben Hogan, a guy that whose entire lower body just got absolutely crushed by a bus now has to go out and walk 36 holes at Olympic club, which I know you guys have been to Olympic club, not an easy walk. Trying to get out there and walk 36 holes and win another major is wild. But everyone pretty much shoots themselves out of it except for Hogan Snead with Jack Fleck kind of hanging around the periphery. This epic duel kind of unfurls between Hogan and Snead who keep

going punch for punch on ball striking, just keep hitting good shot after good shot. But Snead just keeps missing short putts. Some really funny quotes from a lot of newspapers throughout there on just how bad Snead putted. And eventually, you know, Snead blinks and bogey 16 and 17 and Hogan finishes with a birdie on 18. Feels like absolute champagne time. We're going to get to just how much of champagne time it felt like in a second here, but just to set the table. 36 hole final, by the time the final round started, Jack Fleck is three shots behind. Over a 36 hole day, obviously, the groupings kind of change. And so it's not like they didn't repair anything. So Hogan, when he holds out on 18, Jack Fleck is on number 12 still. So he knows exactly what he has to do.

Bogey's 14, so now he knows that he has to birdie two of the last four to force a playoff. I already talked to you about how hard the golf course is playing. But he gets up, hits its nine feet on 15, makes it one back, gets to 16, the par five, which in 1955 was still playing over 600 yards. Did not see that coming.

603 yards. Icarito's the green, blows it over, but gets it up and down for par. He's still alive. Herbert Warren Wynn says at this point, he's playing like a man who has been quote, touched. Definitely start working that one in. Like, I mean, Neil was just touched.

That stretch of six holes, he's simply touched. Yeah, I just got touched at that point. 17 is playing 461 yards. He has two woods that he knocks on the green, just misses a 40 footer, drives it in the rough on 18 and has this little three quarter seven iron kind of punching out of the rough uphill over that bunker, trying to stop it close to the flag hits to seven feet, has a little downhill slider right to left, buries it. So when I say it was champagne time before Jack Fleck won on this whole run, Herbert Warren Wynn in his game story has a 600 word scene from inside the locker room

just standing next to Ben Hogan as basically like everybody on Property thinks that it's on ice and it's just it's this incredible scene I'm not gonna do it justice if I try to read it I would encourage people to go try to find it in the SI vault but basically Ben Hogan's sitting by his locker, drinking a scotch and water. And Herbert Warren Wynne just kind of transcribed the whole scene where reporters are just peppering him with questions about what does it mean to win five in a row? This truly. And then out of nowhere, a reporter will come in and, you know, Jack Flick just hit it eight feet. And he does such an awesome job of like building the drama as

you know, Fleck has four feet at number 15. Fleck. Oh, he needs to make par on 18, blah, blah, blah. And it's just, it's awesome. But the opening quote from Hogan, this is like when he sits down in his locker, he doesn't say this, but it's very clear. Like everybody thinks that it's over and he won. Hogan says, quote, boys, if I win it, I will never work at this again. It's just too tough trying to get ready for a tournament. This one dog gone near killed me. Besides, I don't think it's fair to drag Valerie around and put her through this every time.

Again, of course, spoiler alert, he would not go on to win another US Open, even though he tried, run her up the next year, couple more top tens, but never got to that fifth, fifth U S open. But I just wanted to call it the ending of that scene too. Again, it's a, it's a lengthy like read as guys are just sitting there asking them all kinds of different questions and, and, you know, you can kind of slowly see like Jack Fleck climbing up the leaderboard. This is the end. He said, quote, Hogan sat down on the bench again. The group fell silent.

Then it came a tremendous roar of the gallery at the 18th. A reporter whispered hoarsely, the kids sunk it. Ben Hogan's head went down and he cursed softly. Then he lifted his head, looked around at all of them. Quote, I was wishing he'd either make a two or a five, he said. I was wishing it was over, all over. He turned to an attendant, indicated his clubs inside.

Well, we might as well get those things back in the locker. Got to play tomorrow. It looks like. Yeah, man. That 18 hole playoff. So what did, how would tee times have worked? Why, why was Fleck off later? Was it broadcast window? Like I have no idea. Maybe it's all it also might've just been like pair the stars together. Yeah. I think I like back then, you know, it's just like, yeah, we're putting Snead and Hogan together, but it may be, I guess earlier too,

cause it's a West coast event. Sorry, if I'm stepping on any of this stage, I just pulled up the Wiki to check that par 70, but it says here that the, in that final round that NBC went off the air, proclaiming Hogan as the champion. Jeez. Jeez. I mean, it's like, it was over, right? Time truly is a flat circle. Which again, like just kind of brings to mind the YYang comp, right? Of just like, no, this doesn't happen.

Like this is game over. Like our guy did it again. So they wake up the next day, 18 hole playoff, back in the good old days. Just pausing again. No one else in the top 10 broke 70 on that final day in Flex Shot 67. Yeah. No, and that's how unlikely that was.

I think he gets painted as kind of this guy that just like, whoops, I fell into one. He just played unbelievable golf. That continued during the playoff too. He did not blink at all. He just was by all accounts, incredibly calm, super solid golf. Doesn't let Hogan get into it. He makes a bomb on number six to go two ahead. On number eight, Hogan rolls in a 50 footer. Fleck makes a two right on top of him. He makes another 25 footer on nine. He makes another 20 footer

on 10. And so he's three up on his childhood hero at this point, who again, it's worth mentioning is playing after getting hit by this bus. And Hogan just digs deep man. He's three back with six to play. Birdie's 14 to chop the lead to two. He gets another one back at 17. So now he's one back standing on the 18th tier, the 90th hole, and he just hits a nasty hook left. So if you remember the one foot high rough that I talked about earlier, it takes him three shots just to get back to the fairway from there. He one kind of uncovers his ball, one moves the ball like three feet, and then he gets it back to the fairway, knocks it on the green. And of course, Hogan makes a 25 foot downhill slider for six, but it doesn't matter because Fleck makes

a textbook par. It's a three shot victory and a US Open title. Reporters quickly tracked down his wife, Lynn, who was working at the golf shop that day. And her quote when they asked for information about Jack was, he's the best looking champion the open has ever had. He's got beautiful, thick brown hair, green eyes and dimples. He looks just like Tyrone Power, who was the actor that played Jesse James. So just like really whole, Lincoln-esque, whole some good stuff. Totally Lincoln-esque. He's been touched. He's been absolutely touched. So quick kind of postscript on what happens after this. Again, pretty similar to why you hang stuff other than he goes back and works at the golf

shop. He tries to go back to normal life, but the phone just starts ringing off the hook and people start gawking at him and he becomes kind of the, the U S open champion, trying to do a very normal job and play on the PJ tour at the same time, which doesn't go well. So eventually he gives that up and moves to Detroit, ends up playing golf full-time. It takes him another five years to win. He doesn't really do much. He ends up just really struggling with the fame that he got from winning the open and being the guy who beat Ben Hogan. For what it's worth, he says Hogan was always great to him. Anything about Hogan hated him, Hogan despised him, whatever he says was a myth or, you know, a rumor,

but who knows? He talks a lot about like losing sleep, getting super anxious because he got asked to give all these speeches. He got asked to go to all these banquets. He's meeting with the president. That was just like very much not who he was. He was a very, pretty humble guy from very much not who he was. He was a very pretty humble guy from Iowa that got thrust into just a really weird situation. Woefully misses a cut at the US Open the following year. Like I said, he goes on, it takes him five more years to win again on the PGA tour. He wins the 1960 Phoenix Open in a playoff. Fun fact, ended his PGA tour career with three victories. All of them came in playoffs. Not a nervy guy, man. He was happy to steal up when he needed to. Played on tour until 1963, where eventually he went back to being a club pro again. He would occasionally pop up here and there at events.

His wife, Lynn, died pretty young in 1975, which was a bummer after all the sweet moments that I was reading about. But after that, worth shouting out, he qualified for another US Open at age 55, which is bad ass. He did not just shrink into the shadows and become like a cartoon mascot. He got out there and did it again, which I thought was really cool. And this is a weird one, but just as far as history kind of echoing itself a little bit, back to the flooding golf courses.

Much later in his life, he moved to Arkansas and he ended up buying this little rural golf course. And in 1993, the golf course had a horrible flood, needed all kinds of repairs and Fleck did not have the money to pay for it. So he sold his gold metal from the 1955 US Open in order to pay for the repairs. And when a reporter asked him about it, he said, I love this. He said, really, what are you going to do with something like that? Just look

at it once in a while, maybe get buried with it. A friend of mine told me Hogan was really upset. I sold it, but I didn't want to have to borrow anything. I didn't want to have to go in debt. That folks is a true Midwestern man to his core, to his dying day. Based on that quote alone, you can consider me a Fleck tone. That's good stuff. So let me finally land the point here. 1967, that famous sports writer, Jim Murray, that I mentioned, wrote a column about Fleck that I read that just really summed up the later years of his life. It's an awesome column. He said, America is very hard on its myth destroyers. You're better robbing a bank than

beating Jack Dempsey. You can poison Santa Claus, but don't strike out Babe Ruth. What Roger Maris is to baseball and what Brutus was to Caesar, Jack Donald Fleck is to golf. He's anti-history, a roadblock on the royal road to romance, an inkblot on the pages of a legend." He goes on to say that Jack just really struggled with the fact that he knew, he quickly realized that he was never going to be able to tee it up as Jack Fleck again, and that he was always going to be, you know who, who did you know what. And Murray said, quote, golf, golf crowds are too polite to hiss, but you could just feel the hostility and the unsaid miss it. It would be a lot easier to take if they just shouted it. And he closes that column with a

quote from Fleck, which I fucking love. And it was also the last quote of the New York Times obit after he passed away. And he said, quote, I became the man who beat Hogan. I became a villain. Because of that, people rooted against me, but I'm glad I did it. It's better to be somebody even if it's only for once in your life. Hell yeah. That is Jack Fleck in the 90s. I'm not apologizing for it.

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. You don't like it, play better. That's fantastic, man. I really knew 1% of that. I knew that he beat Ben Hogan in a playoff. That was about all I knew. That's kind of where I was too.

And it's just, I don't know. I mean, a lot of these guys are, I feel myself fighting against it, right? Especially as the PGA tour just becomes this like, oh, it's an entertainment product. We need the stars and like, this is good for business and blah. And it's like, man, fuck that. All these guys are working hard and like, they all should, I don't know, it doesn't have to become a math equation on some sort of like P and L spreadsheet. Like sometimes it's good if the guys who've just been busting their ass for 30 years breakthrough and you need to mix in those winners. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So it was a good reminder. Good stuff. All protein bars generally taste the same but not one bars. One made protein bars that are actually delicious with Reese's and Hershey's only one Reese's peanut butter lovers protein bars made with Reese's peanut butter. Only one Hershey's cookies and cream protein bar is made with Hershey's Cookie Bits. Each co-branded bar delivers 18 grams of protein and 3 grams of sugar. One also has delicious flavors like birthday cake, maple glazed donut, and blueberry cobbler, which contain 20 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. One bar is the perfect protein bar to get you through a busy day whether you need a quick pickup between meetings or need some fuel to power you through your workout,

one bars are the perfect treat. Find all one bars at a retailer near you or on amazon.com. Neil, what do you got? I'm gonna zag a little bit. Those are both good. That's a tough one to follow, but I wanna kick it off. I have a confession to make. I don't know if Surf Pro is involved in this episode,

but it's a mea culpa. I've gotten Steve and Jerry Pate mixed up a lot. It turns out they're not related, two separate individuals. Steve Pate is the volcano. I was referring to Jerry Pate as the volcano in my head in my prep, but I will be doing Jerry Pate. And I would say, I'm gonna throw something out there

that hopefully I can bring home at the end of this section is I think Jerry Pate is Spieth 1.0. I'm going to tee that up for you. So the surprise major in question, he won the 1976 US Open at Atlanta Athletic Club, the Highlands course, which was playing 7,000 and 15 yards as a par 70. First of four majors that were played at the Atlanta Athletic Club. On paper, Jerry Pate isn't really like the come out of nowhere. Ben Curtis never heard of this guy. He won the USM in 1974. But he wins the US Open as a PGA Tour rookie.

And I think that like, no doubt is a surprise. Major winner. I also kind of wanted an excuse to dig into Jerry Pate because I see that picture of him diving into the 18th pawn it at Sawgrass. You know, I hear the name a lot, but I really have not dug into his career. So Pate was a PGA tour rookie when he won this US Open six other players have done this. Can you guys name them? Keegan Bradley, US Open specifically or no, no major major. Yeah, Keegan Bradley at the same course. Yes, exactly. PGA

championship. John Daly. No, he was the same course. Yes, exactly. PGA championship. Uh, John Daly. No, he was not a rookie. Not in my research. Didn't come up. Fuzzy Zeller. No. It's masters rookie. Yeah. I just thought, uh, is it all since Jerry paid or is it older than that? No, I would say one name is very modern. The rest are pretty old. You mentioned one earlier at the beginning of your segment, Deid, you mentioned his name or no, Sally mentioned his name.

Francis. We may. Yes. Uh, Willie park senior Horace Rollins, Fred Hurd and Ben Curtis. I didn't have Willie park senior as a PJ. I know. I was like, all right, but I just, I bring that up just to say like, yeah, he's looking to have a big year in the FedEx cup on paper. You, you know, you go back and you look and I was like, who should, you know, who should I, I profile here? I'm like, ah, Jerry Pate, like, is he a surprise winner? But then you see that he won as a rookie. It kind of like, oh man, like a rookie winning the U S open is crazy. So the year before in 1975,

he was tied for the low and with Jay Haas in the U S open at Medina. And then again, he won the year before in 1975, he was tied for the low am with Jay Haas in the US Open at Medina. And then again, he won the 1974 US Am so he played at Alabama. He's from Pensacola, Florida. Actually, he was born in Macon, Georgia, but he went, he grew up in Pensacola, ended up going to Alabama. So he had a really good amateur career won the Walker Cup in 75 St. Andrews. Again, I'm taking the surprise thing a little bit in a different direction. So he beat Al Geiberger and Tom Weisskopf

by two strokes with a finishing score of minus three. Do you guys have any idea what the purse was? What the 1976 US Open total purse or the winner, the winner share? Give me a take a crack at both. First is probably like 500 grand. Oh no, less than that. I would say, I'm going to say a hundred grand. $252,000 winner's share was 42 K. Yeah. Which I hit the inflation cal calculator.

It looks like 1.3 million total total in buying power in today's money. So, I mean, you know, I guess that's not bad. Shout out to the cat as always. Whenever we do the inflation calculator. So, pay one of the final round, two shots back of John Mahaffey. Do you guys know who John Mahaffey is? Just the name. Yeah. Yeah. I was unfamiliar with his game, but Mahaffy had been the runner-up in 1975 at the US Open at Medina losing to Lou Graham in a playoff. So he's back. He's got some, yeah, he's got some Stu sync going on some unfinished business. So he kicks off the final round with a, with a pretty good leaderboard chasing. He got Weisskopf back

there. Nicholas was kind of hanging around on that Saturday, but Pate is two back and he's still two hits. So he's in the final group with Mahaffy basically still two back on the 15th tee, which is that long par three, David Toms made a hole in one there when he wanted Atlanta Athletic Club. So kind of the, I would say one of the signature holes out there. So Pate hits a one iron close and makes birdie Mahaffy then bogeyed 16 and the two were tied. Mahaffy then three putts 17 for bogey giving Pate a one iron close and makes birdie Mahaffey then bogeyed 16 and the two were tied. Mahaffey then three putts 17 for bogey giving paid a one stroke lead on the 18th tee. So they both tee off. They both hit it in the rough. Mahaffey tried to reach the green on 18 from

the rough, but comes up short and hits it in that pond in front of 18. I think honestly, 18 does produce a lot of drama at Atlanta Athletic Club. I can close my eyes and picture it of just like, man, that second shot is like, am I going to go for it? Like I would love, love a one shot cushion on this hole. So Mahaffy sends it, hits it in the pond. He ends up making bogey. So three bogeys in a row to finish runner up. Or actually, I guess he finished third, but had the lead on 15 tee tough. So here we have Pate's 191 yards out in the in the rough and quote a so so lie. He hits a five iron to three feet and makes birdie just didn't need to that Weisskopf and and Guy Berger both laid up from a similar position. But he

flies it to the green winds by two. So I've got a quote here did a little little digging on some gamers, but Marino Paracenzo from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, quote, he needed only one shot. In fact, he already had it. He needed only par on the 18th to win, but he took a wild gamble to go for a birdie. He could lock up the open with a quiet, safe par. That birdie at 18 was a luxury he really couldn't afford, but it was a chance he couldn't live without. Quote, it was my chance to do what I wanted to do. I didn't want to play it safe. I never thought of laying up at stake was his first tour victory, his

first open and the first prize of $42,000. So, you know, listen, Jerry Pate, apologies. We're not familiar with your game. That is a sick quote. A decision that I, you know, I, God, I love that man. He just, he just decided to hit the hard shot now. I think that there's a plaque there, if I remember right, from the KPMG Women's PGA over in that. I think there is. Yeah. So kind of getting some context to that, you know, like is awesome.

So a few other fun facts, just about the 76, uh, US Open. So Pate turned pro, I guess this is kind of getting some context to that, you know, like is awesome. So a few other fun facts just about the 76 US Open. So Pate turned pro, I guess this is kind of relevant. He turned pro in 76 using a loan of $4,000. It says from a friend of Bobby Jones's Mr. Rainwater. I'm not sure about Mr. Rainwater's first name. I believe he runs around with Denny Cash. But so Mr. Rainwater bankrolls them and the 42k boosted his 1976 earnings to $86,000. So far through the

season. Apparently, though, about a month before or a few months before the US Open, he's recently married to his wife Susie. Susie is spelled S O Z I, which I think is sweet. Susie broke her leg before the US open riding an amusement park machine. So the bank account had dipped. I think they had some medical bills and they had a lawsuit like pending. I was going to say that sounds like a money making opportunity, not a car. Yeah. But I think the lawsuit was still pending. So I think that I think Pate was in the post-around stuff. I think Pate was super duper fired up about the 42 K. Like

I think that was, that was good for business. I wonder if, if Mr. Rainwater got to wet his beak on that amusement park settlement. I don't know, but it seems like Mr. Rainwater's 4k loan is paying off nicely. So, and then just generally Bobby Jones was kind of credited. He's, he has passed away by this point, but kind of credited with bringing the U S open to the Atlantaic Club. Again, a first of four majors that Atlanta Athletic Club has hosted. The three others have been PGA championships, KPMG, women's open. So I guess you say five majors at this point. The original club Atlanta Athletic Club was found in 1898. And the golf course was built in 1904.

That golf course was Eastlake. So that was the home course for the Atlanta Athletic Club. And then in 67, they bought some land up in Duluth unincorporated Fulton County, Duluth now known as Johns Creek kind of up in my, you know, young Icaritos neck of the woods, they brought in Robert Trent Jones to build a new course, then they sold the East Lake property in I think 68. And that became East Lake Golf Club. Not before it like got super run down and it was not a place you wanted to be

in the 70s. From research I did on another podcast long ago. This was the first US open where they were allowed to bring their own caddies and the Matt, Augusta national wouldn't let players use their own caddies, that East club caddies up until 1982. But it sounds like this was common for all the majors basically up until the like uh, like mid seventies. What a variable, variable by the way. I know. Seriously. It's like they'll sign you a club caddy like a freaking corporate outing day. Yeah. Here's a four caddy for you. Like, yeah, that's tough. Yardage books and stuff like pre-made yardage books and, and, uh, and greens reading books

back then. It was all, you know, you got to count on your caddies for yardages and important stuff too. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I'd like to, I'd like to think about that a little bit. It's an interesting thought exercise. That's what I mean. She's like, no, no, no, you gotta be truly by yourself out there. Let's think about how that would go. One other fun fact, Jack Nicklaus finished 11th and breaking a streak of 13 consecutive

top 10 finishes in majors. I mean, that's, that's quite a run. Just in case you forget it. Finishing 11th. Exactly. It's like, yeah, he kind of, and any at a bad Sunday, like he was kind of right there on Saturday. So gotta always, you know, I think especially it for our generation just remind ourselves that like

Nicholas was the dude, especially in this time period. So general stuff just kind of I'm going with Sally's format, I'm gonna do a little career stuff here for Jerry Pate, because that's what I found the most interesting. So like I said, born in Macon, grew up in Pensacola, standout amateur and college player. He won the 1974 USM at Ridgewood in New Jersey, which was the site of the 2022 USM that Sam Bennett won. Pate won two and one over John Grace, came back from I think as much as three down like on the final 18 holes. So grinds out a USM win, part of that winning Walker Cup team in May of 75 at St. Andrews. He played

golf at University of Alabama. And this is from the Atlanta Journal of Constitution's Russ Devault quote, Pate attended University of Alabama and considers Jim Rayling, the golf coach who developed so many stars at the University of Florida, the finest teacher in the game. In fact, if Rayling hadn't gone to Alabama as the coach, Pate probably would have accepted a scholarship to UGA. After the US Open win, Pate goes on a heater. He wins. He beats Jack Nicklaus at the Canadian Open closing with a 7 under 63 to win by four strokes. He's then selected the rookie of

the year and co-player of the year. And I think this quote, again, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this is from August 12th of 76, on the eve of the PGA Championship, summed things up for me, quote, "'Arnold Palmer has a smile on his face, but there's envy in his voice. He's standing just behind the practice tee

watching Jerry Pate hit some balls, and he's longing for his youth. Desire,' Palmer says simply, it's something that Jerry Pate has. Call it cockiness if you want. It's something that is necessary to win. This morning I have it, but it doesn't stay with me constantly. It's with him all the time. Perhaps more than any others, those two symbolize the changing of the guard on the pro golf tour. The old and the new. Palmer, a month shy of his 47thth birthday who last won a major in 1964 at the Masters

at age 34. And now paid a month shy of his 23rd birthday, the game's newest superhero winner of the US Open and Canadian Open, the most successful rookie ever, one of the favorites in the PGA championship. So just kind of like for me, it was like, oh, man, this guy just burst on the scene in his rookie season ends up winning the rookie of the year and I think player of the year in 1976. And it kind of like things, it's like all systems are go. Again, Pate's kind of future US golf, then his shoulder injuries start to hold him back. So here's his career overview. He's a member of the, things are going well throughout the late seventies. He ends up making he ends up making the rider cup team in 1981. He lost this 1978 PGA championship in a playoff to who,

where was it? Do you know? Don't know where it was, but it's a name that we've talked about a lot in the last five minutes. 70 last five John Mahaffey. How about that? He gets it done. Stu Sink, unfinished business. So Mahaffey beats... It's like one of those, one of those novels where, you know, the first chapter they're like, oh, there's a custodian that looks kind of weird. Yeah, I forgot about that. I'm not going to believe this. Mahaffey gets it done.

It was the custodian? Oh, okay. Yeah, I forgot about that guy. There were some quotes too, from the 76 US open about Mahaffey like that on Saturday. I'm going to win this tournament. Like this one's, this one's mine. I didn't get it done last year. So you think like he's, you know, we're not going to hear from Mahaffey anymore. Well, he ends up winning the PGA championship in 78, beating Tom Watson and Jerry Pate in a playoff. And then how many PGA tour wins do you guys think Jerry Pate has? 12. 14.

He has eight PGA tour wins. US Open and Canadian Open in 76. The Phoenix Open in 77. Southern Open in 77. Southern Open in 78. Memphis Classic in 1981. The Pensacola open in 1981 and the 1982 players championship. Kind of a Bermuda Burns kind of vibe. Guy never got to the makes and Dixon line. From 76 to 82, he wins 1.4 million and he's kind of, he's on the Ryder Cup team. He's kind of, he's just consistent. He's balling out. Then he has some torn cartilage in his shoulder, starts bothering him at the end of the 82 season. Tried to play through it for two seasons.

Who does that remind you of? But finally got surgery in 85. After that surgery, he ends up tearing his rotator cuff. Get surgery again in 86. That doesn't really work. So I think he has to have another surgery in like 87 or 88. So from 82 to 94, he doesn't win over 100k. She's which is just like, more evidence for me

of like, I remember, in college football, if a guy had a rotator cuff injury, it was like, we called him the forgotten man. It's like, we'll see maybe next season, but probably never like, it's truly a night night injury. So from a 1994 article in the Greens in Greensboro, I think Greensboro Daily News of Larry Keach, my guy Larry Keach, Pate is quoted as saying, the looseness in my shoulder joint is a permanent condition. It doesn't affect my driving because the ball is sitting up in the air on the tee, but it

hurts my iron game because pounding the club into the ground creates pain. It doesn't prevent me from playing a great round, but the tour forces you to come back and play well the next day. 94 was kind of the last horados is like the last year he really gave it a chance on the PGA tour. Another quote from Keach's piece. Professionally, I have three areas of interest designing and developing golf courses working on working as a golf announcer for ABC and playing paid said I feel like I

need to give up one of them in the near future. Right now it looks like I have to quit playing, which is just like, damn, because he was like, like he had the potential to be the dude other than injury. So if you're getting Arnold Palmer to lust after you while you're hitting balls, that's what I mean, man. I was like, these quotes and just like the, the, uh, the swag to like send it on 18 and the us open as a rookie, like it, it just felt like the sky was the limit here. So credit to him though, he does go on to win twice in the champions tour. He's had a pretty good career after 50, but like you can, so that 1982 players win, he wins by two. That's

the famous scene where he throws Pete Dye and mean Dean Beeman into the lake off of 18 green. And then he does just an epic dive, like full on swan dive into the lake. of 18 green and then he does just an epic dive like full on swan dive into the lake and I've seen that picture at TPC so many times and like, oh yeah, there's the volcano. It's Jerry Payne. It's like, no, man, that's not the volcano. All right, relax with that. Knock it off, would you? But I mean, even going through his major record, let's see here. He had two seconds in majors, one third. So four top fives, 11 top tens in majors, all between 76 and 82 with one win. Players is funny. He's basically, he wins it. Otherwise his best finish T 17 and 78 and T 20 and 79. And then it's just a bunch of like T 45 cuts after that. So it's always funny to see

when somebody, I feel like the players works that way where it's not like a guy. Yeah. There's no trending at the players. There's no trending at TPC Sawgrass, which always, I always get a kick out of that. So a couple other things he went on to broadcast for ABC and BBC, I think in the, in the nineties and then golf course design. So he had a long running friendship with Pete Dye. And he is currently, I believe, restoring or renovating the teeth of the dog at Casa de Campo right now. But he runs Jerry Pate, like landscape design. He doesn't just do golf courses. He's done old Waverly in West Point, Mississippi. I think he laid some hands on Dye's Valley course at TPC Sawgrass. And there's a few other courses, a lot of it down

in that like Pensacola, Florida, panhandle area. It seems like he sticks kind of close to home, but he does a bunch of like just commercial land landscaping, like office, like someone's building a new office. And like, it was like us like Navy credit union. He did like the whole campus, like landscaping design for him. Sweet's sweet. I know, it's so sick. It's like irrigation. It's like heavy, just commercial landscaping is like half of the business. And then he does some golf course design stuff. So yeah, Jerry Pate, I just was kind of surprised by a rookie winning the US open and just in

general surprised by his career. That's a much needed kind of spin through the world of Jerry Pate. I'm with you. Have seen the photos. It doesn't get enough juice. I did not know that he was not the volcano either. If that helps you. All right. I just had to come clean about that. I didn't, you know, Steve Pate, totally different dude. He went to UCLA. We, you know, other side of the country. You asked me next week I might confuse the two again. You've just wonderful history lessons. So I'm gonna bring us home with a little bonus one. I didn't tell you guys what I was gonna pick here I wanted this to be a little surprise. Do you have any? Did I give it away any estimations as to who I might want to go for it as a surprise major winner man or woman?

It is a man. The only thing I was thinking was the guy that they pulled off the roof to win the open. The Rufa. Yeah. It is not him. Any guesses as to, you know, is there an obvious surprise major winner out there

that didn't get picked? Well, I would say like Ben Curtis, but I would say Francis Ouimet, because he's kind of, we've danced around him a little bit, Francis Ouimet. Keep going, keep naming. I want you to name as many guys as you can. Todd Hamilton.

I'm hoping this is a surprise is what I'm getting at here, of a major winner. All right. Mission accomplished. I think that works. I'm going to play an audio file, and it's going to hit you extremely quickly as to who the surprise winner is. No, no, here's what's gonna happen. He is not ever gonna win another tournament I don't think we'll ever see Tiger Woods win the golf tournaments again He's showing up at these tournaments and pretty much knowing that he's he's not gonna be there

The short game is gone his health is gone The next press release Tiger Woods should release should be I'm retiring I have considered him now for the last five six years years, a former golfer. You're lost. Just give up while you're ahead. Retire with some dignity. Tiger Woods that we all knew he would never ever beat that guy again. His short game is gone. Is gone. His health is gone. I got more if you want it because just it's worth documenting again how again how unlikely this was to happen

despite how much we talked about in the very beginning of this one this was an extremely unlikely major championship we're going to get to a lot of why we've seen a lot of people with short careers sandy kofax torrell davis and tigers wasn't really that short if you consider by four years old, he was golfing. And then by 34 years old, he was done. Shot. No more majors. Tiger Woods, a couple of years ago, had his fourth surgery on his back. Fourth. He was in his, you know, 30s.

And I also think emotionally, Tiger Woods is burned out. Need to know that the Tiger era is over. I think the handwriting is on the wall. I think Tiger knows it's over. He's got the body of a 61 year old. It seems like Tiger does downhill all the way from here. And look who's with us now. Greg Norman is your money on Tiger Woods.

I know. No, I'll take, I'll take the field. How about that? I'll bet you, I'll bet you a cocktail where we gather your next night at 7 on the field. Now he'll never win another major. He will never win another major again. Phil Mickelson's career over Tiger Woods? Yes I did. Let me just say this. Blame. We got into this last week. Tiger's Eddie Murphy. Ten years, number one in Hollywood.

But when Eddie Murphy walks into a room now, you know what people say? Remember when he was amazing? Remember he used to be great. Tiger Woods, for ten years, ruled the world. Now he's a tire fire. Now people make Tiger Woods jokes. I personally don't think he's going to win another major. There are some who believe that Tiger Woods will never win another major.

I say he's never going to win another major again. I don't think he'll ever win another major and I don't even know if he'll win a tournament again. You're going to win another major, yes or no? I don't think so. There's probably two dozen guys who are playing out there who aren't intimidated by him and are better than him when he's at his best now. Coward, some tough ones in to go through a quick list here.

I don't have like a list of golf players that I've ever played. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf.

I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf.

I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never played golf. I've never. We're not going to go through a lot of the actual golf. We remember what happened. It was only five years ago, but I'm going to go through a quick list here. I don't have like his movie history of like, uh, you know, when he went to the movies and shorts throughout this, like we did. And the history that we've cut through that on the trap drop. But, uh, Tiger Woods famously won the 2008 us open on a broken leg and a torn ACL. Uh, he had surgery eight days after winning that US Open. There was additional

cartilage damage that was also repaired in that one. I'm going to I'm going to list off some more injuries. How many more injuries do you think I'm going to list off? Do you remember what the number is between that massive surgery and him winning the Masters? Definitely have four back surgeries. Yeah, I mean, it's like 20. I mean, it's just like crazy. We have, I guess, the fire hydrant. I would consider that some injuries from

that. Why don't we just go through them? Next up, he injured his Achilles in his right leg while running in preparation for his return to golf. He was hospitalized overnight in November of 2009 with a sore neck and a cut lip that required five stitches when he hit a fire hydrant with his SUV. He almost certainly had to get his teeth fixed throughout the course of that as well, but he withdrew from the final round of the players in 2010, citing a bulging disc. He later said it was a neck issue that caused tingling in his right side. Shout out to Wyn McMurray on that one too. It is a bulging disc.

Again, April 2011 injured his left Achilles hitting from an awkward stance under the Eisenhower tree at Augusta. He withdrew from the Wells Fargo. Tour the tree down. May of 2011 he withdrew from the players after shooting 42 on the front. Has an MCL sprain in his left knee and left Achilles tendon. Misses two months including two majors. He returns to the Bridgestone.

August 2012 he moves stiffly around the second round of the Barclays and says he felt pain in his lower back, blames a soft mattress in his hotel. June of 2013, he is seen shaking his left arm in the opening round of the US Open, says it's an elbow strain. He suffered while winning the players in May. He missed two events, returned at the British. August 2013, feels tightness in his back at the final round of the PGA. The next week August 21 2013 drops to his knees after hitting a shot at the Barclays because of back spasms at Liberty National March of 2014 he withdrew after 13 holes in

the final round of the Honda Classic because of back pain and spasms similar to the Barclays he was playing with why Yang I thought he was gonna be all over. Oh, sorry. I was still thinking Barclays. No, he. Why Yang? I thought DJ was gonna be all over that one. Oh, sorry. I was still thinking Barclays. No, he's playing Luke Guthrie. He's playing Luke Guthrie. One week later, he plays the final 12 holes with Payne in his lower back at Dorale. He shoots 78,

the highest final round of his career. March of 2014, he withdraws from the Arnold Palmer because of back pain. He was a two time defending champion. Later in March of 2014, he gets surgery in Utah for a pinched nerve. He will miss the Masters and not return to golf until summer. September of 2015, he undergoes a second microdyssectomy surgery to remove a disc fragment that was pinching his nerve.

October of 2015 has another procedure to relieve discomfort in his back. There is no timetable for his return. April of 2017, a fourth back surgery, the spinal fusion, to alleviate pain. He has experience in his back and his back. There's no timetable for his return. April 2017, a fourth back surgery, the spinal fusion to alleviate pain. He has experience in his back and his leg. March of 2019, a month before the Masters withdrew from the Arnold Palmer with a neck strain. That is 18 injuries since his last major championship win. You're missing one. He popped his wrist out at Augusta. He popped it right back in. That didn't count as an injury.

Technically, it should go on the injury report though. I would say it should go on the injury report though. Yeah. Okay. It was not reported as such by, I think those PJ of a Miracle, but we had an article with all the history of that. This also does not include a very ugly DUI video that comes out in May of 2017. The cat is not vibing anywhere during this time period. Colin Montgomery said in 2015, nevermind a major, can he win another event ever again? We recorded a preview podcast,

had very little conversation about Tiger Woods winning it, but this is from the No Lang Up Preview Masters 2019. Cat is 14 to one. That feels, yeah. He doesn't feel ready to win it. Yeah is 14 to one. That feels, yeah. He doesn't feel ready to win it. No, 14 to one. Again, file that one away if you want to. But like, this hasn't been a great, great start

to the year. I mean, again, all relative to what we're actually witnessing, I think we were kind of thinking after he won the tour championship that he might take a little extra leap this year, a second year of full health, but it hasn't really happened yet. Cat's been a little sloppy, he might take a little extra leap this year, a second year of full health, but it hasn't really happened. So Kat's been a little sloppy. He might not win. That brings us to Jordan Spieth, who's definitely going to win.

So yeah, I had to expose myself there literally in the preview of saying like, yeah, he's not going to win. Like he's not going to actually go out and win. I always forget he won the tour championship though in 2018. Yes, he did. And he was extremely close to winning the British Open the prior year at Cardinals. He made a great run at it. But I was trying to rally up as many quotes I could. Jack Nicklaus does come out looking good in this one. He was steadfast throughout everything that Tiger would win another major and that it would happen.

So he got a little victory lap in there at the end. As much as I put those clips together of all the people saying he wouldn't win, I was most certainly in that camp. That again, is why it speaks to the extreme unlikelihood that he would ever come back from all that stuff. And it's easy. I mean, it took a long time for me to list off all of those injuries, like the actual time out in all of those and how inevitable it felt like there was just something else around the corner. Also just made it feel like it was never ever going to happen again. And Tiger himself said, I had serious doubts after what transpired a couple of years ago. I could barely walk. I couldn't sit, couldn't lay down.

I really couldn't do much of anything to have this opportunity to come back like this. It's probably one of the biggest wins I've ever had for sure because of it. And if I remember right, there was some rumblings that he said something at the, to someone at the at the champions dinner in 2017 that he was done. I think it was Fouto or something like that. He said, yeah, I'm not going to, I'm done. I can't do it. Not playing anymore. Um, I think that was the height of his pain in April of 2017, but, uh,

it was also like he had a press conference at the hero in his event in the Bahamas. I think it, I don't know if that was in 2018 or maybe it was 2017, where he was just like, when he was like, yeah, I'm playing a ton of video games. And, you know, I don't, it just didn't seem like he was really, his heart was in playing golf competitively at all. But again, just if we're talking, it is amazing that somebody can be a surprise loser in a major, which he was at to YY Yang. And then 10 years later be one of the great shocking wins that we've seen in major championship golf.

And I didn't want to lose track of that one. Yeah. I appreciate the technicality on this one. Truly. There's just the, you know, still the greatest player of all time and also the most underrated player of all time. And I'd say you're right. That is the biggest surprise major win.

Like when you just think, I can't believe this is happening in the way that the way it happened with, uh, Molinari, you know, sleeps with the fishes on 12 and Tiger just takes over on 16 and then 17 and 18 just looks like the old cat. It's like, Oh yeah, I know how to do this. Oh yeah. I got the lead again. That this is over like so surgical on 17 and 18. Unbelievable. And it even, even that day, it just, it didn't feel like it was that likely until the very end. I mean, it was, you know, he was in the mix, but that's never how he won any of his majors.

They were all, he ran them, won them all as front runners. And it still was one of the most surreal days I've ever had covering golf and probably ever will. But that's it. That is our first edition of surprise major winners. I think this is probably the one we will probably attempt to reheat in the future. There's a lot more I'm stoked to probably the one we will probably attempt to reheat in the future. There's so many more. I'm stoked to do another one of these. Yeah. DJ's, what, 69 other names from Wolfie. So maybe we could all take a crack at that list.

Yeah, exactly. On the next time we do this. That's right. Well, we'll look forward to that day. Thank you everyone for tuning in. We'll see you back here again soon. Brek on. Cheers. Cheers. Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him?

That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? For Fandle Must Be 21 and older and president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and older and president DC gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit md gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts

or call 1-877-8-hopeny or text hopeny in New York.